BoxTone Launches A Price War For iPhone & iPad Management Tools

BoxTone turns up the competition for iOS/mobile management with $0.99 offer.

Mobile management vendor BoxTone announced an aggressive pricing and sales campaign for its mobile management platform today. From now through the end of September, companies will be able to license BoxTone’s mobile device management (MDM) suite for a monthly fee of just $0.99 per device.

The move comes just a week after BoxTone announced the latest generation of its mobile management tools that includes the now-discounted MDM module as well as modules focused on mobile app management (MAM), mobile device support solutions for help desk agents and IT support teams, and a mobile operations module for monitoring and managing mobile IT staff.

As we noted when we profiled BoxTone as part of Mobile Management Month series, the company provides enterprise mobile management for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry devices. The company also has several strategic partnerships with enterprise mobile technology vendors including mobile device security and mobile information management giant Good Technology and secure enterprise information and content management powerhouse Accellion.

One of BoxTone’s signature services is telecom expense management. BoxTone can help enterprise customers monitor the voice and data use of company-issued and personally-owned iPhones, iPads, Android devices and BlackBerry handsets. Organizations can fine tune rate plans and features to maximize savings when use expense management features.

BoxTone’s new pricing applies only to its MDM module. Additional modules like those for mobile app management or mobile support resources will still be licensed at their normal rates. The offer is also only available to companies that license BoxTone to manage 1,000 devices or more. It expires September 30, 2012. For existing customers, BoxTone is offering loyalty discounts (companies can contact BoxTone directly to discuss options).

Overall, BoxTone’s newest generation of tools and the MDM discount highlight the growing consensus in the mobile IT community that simply managing devices with MDM software doesn’t provide broad enough protection and security for company-issued devices or personal devices brought into the workplace as part of a bring your own device (BYOD) program. App and information management are gaining recognition as requirements for a successful mobile strategy.

The timing of the discount could be perfect for companies looking to ditch RIM’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server in favor of third-party mobile management tools that can manage BlackBerry devices, iPhones/iPad, and other mobile platforms.

About the author:

Ryan Faas is a technology journalist and consultant living in upstate New York who has written extensively about Apple, business and enterprise IT, and the mobile industry. In addition to writing for Cult of Mac, he is a contributor to Computerworld, InformIT, and Peachpit Press. In a previous existence he was a healthcare IT director as well as a systems and network administrator. Follow Ryan on Twitter and Google +.